Internships

Internship Series part 2: The Cool Factor

by Marian Schembari on December 31, 2009

Just the other day I ran into a guy I went to high school with, Ed, who is an intern with a major fashion designer. He has a degree, is a helluva smart kid, but felt because of the recession he wouldn’t be able to get a paying job so chickened out and grabbed the first opportunity that came his way. Is he not gaining experience? I’m sure he his. But the time that he spends every day at the designers, he could be spending meeting people at all different designers, marketing himself to HR and going to interviews. He could instead end up somewhere he truly wants to be, with people who appreciate him for his work and his time, rather than his impressionable youth.

We also can’t forget the “cool factor”. Places like Ed’s company – designers, movie studios, event planners – have the prestige in certain circles of being The Coolest Kid on the Block and assume (correctly) that drooling kids will be falling over themselves to stuff envelopes. We’re willing to do shitty work for free so we can later say we worked for Time Warner/Burberry/Random House.

Chris Brogan wrote on his blog about the audacity of free, and how we shouldn’t be embarrassed to put a price tag on our services: “Paying something for a service or good helps us value it more.” And that’s the point now, isn’t it? Interns just aren’t valued, regardless of the “experience” they get in return.

When Jenavi Kasper resigned from her internship at a large ad agency, she wrote a letter that was later posted on a marketing blog. The response was enormous. She wrote, “When ‘helping with projections’ meant reading you numbers off a spreadsheet I became a little discouraged. When ‘working with scripts’ meant retyping scripts I was bummed. It was especially painful when I spent all morning cleaning out an office for the new girl while you guys took off to Starbucks.” She was doing assistant work. Except assistants get paid. And learn just as much as interns. So why do we still take them?

Tyler Hurst, Media Strategist at Amanda Vega Consulting, wrote me and complained about Kasper’s letter: “What I found was a meek whiner who refused to answer even the simplest questions I had”, he said. “I wanted her to be a rock star and she turned out to be a groupie.” While I don’t know this Jenavi character (she could have been the worst intern ever), she makes some excellent points. Internships are made out to be these wonderful experiences that are competitive and help us get our foot into the real world. What they really are is misleading and degrading.

Do you know what else offers amazing work experience, networking, and – gasp! – a roof over one’s head? A real job.

Tomorrow: The top 5 tips for gaining the experiences of an internship without actually having one…

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Internship Series part 1: Why you shouldn’t take an internship

by Marian Schembari on December 30, 2009

This is the first post in a three-part series where I break down the problems with internships, tell two stories of people who let the system abuse them, and give you the top five tips for getting the most out of your pre-career without doing it for free.

Remember when people used to pay you to work? Neither do I. It’s this new generation (college to 25ish) that makes it acceptable – desirable – to work long hours, do menial work and like it… FOR FREE. Does no one else see something wrong with this?

The problem with internships:

  • Apparently, you can only gain meaningful work experience if you’re somebody’s bitch.
  • Just because someone is “willing”, doesn’t mean it’s not slave labor.
  • You need to be able to afford it. Meaning that if you don’t come from a good family with a good education and work experience, you have no way to support yourself while you gain said meaningful work experience. Vicious circle and all. An article in The Atlantic says, “Interns are like illegal immigrants. But they’re worse, because instead of doing the jobs nobody wants to do, college interns do the jobs that everybody their age wants to do, but that only the wealthier can afford.”
  • Meaning slave labor is highly competitive.
  • Oftentimes, YOU pay THEM to be their bitch – in the form of transportation fees, lunch, work attire, etc etc.

I’ve had three internships since high school, all of which I’ve liked and gained some serious experience. One in particular was at The Royal Academy of Arts in London. London college students don’t often have internships as slave labor apparently isn’t as popular on that side of the pond. Meaning my bosses were actually surprised/ecstatic and often confused that we would do their work for free. Meaning they were nice to us, gave us moderately exciting work, let us sit in on meetings and brainstorm with them. They even offered me a paying job at the end of it and ended up being my most positive work experience. That being said, it was in London. I’m currently in New York.

However, internships are becoming more popular since I left and the UK is now investigating these internships because because, unlike some countries, they apparently care. The Guardian reported, “Under the National Minimum Wage Act, interns who work rather than observe should be paid, but employers have taken advantage of a legally grey area, and the willingness of young people, to pay just expenses, or nothing at all.”

Fast forward a few years to just after my college graduation, when I was looking for work in publishing. A lot of people told me I should consider an internship since it was obviously pretty difficult to break into the big houses. That way I could “gain experience” and “make connections” while the companies hurt by the economy can get the job done without having to pay. Now, I’d like to think I’m pretty smart — I have a degree from a fancy school and a ton of work experience already, so why the hell should I give up the goods for free? This concept just flies in the face of our established wage regulations. Why have minimum wage at all if we all just work for free? How does that make any sense?

lemmings

Before you pee yourself, think about it. I know internships are what everyone does, and it is difficult to get a job without at least one under your belt. But by taking one you also prove you can only think inside the cube and have no imagination whatsoever. Instead, prove to employers that you don’t need any hand holding. Prove you can network and gain experience without the big boss at a big company. Taking the initiative is that much more impressive than taking an internship with all the other lemmings.

Want to go into finance? Email someone at the Financial Women’s Association and ask if you can come to a meeting. People like to help out those of us just getting started, so mention that you’re looking for work and want to learn more about the business. I guarantee if you sit down and talk one-on-one with someone you will gain just as much experience (if not more) as going into work and watching other people’s meetings from a distance. Want to keep up with the industry of your choice? That’s what the internet is for.

Seriously, you are so much smarter and creative and BOLD if you take work into your own hands. Okay, so the economy blows. What are you going to DO about it?!

Tomorrow: The “cool factor” and one intern’s drama when she let the bosses have it…

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Dear Hailey, You should have used social media to clean up your image

by Marian Schembari on December 26, 2009

This past summer a student at the UF College of Journalism was caught plagiarizing the New York Times at her newspaper internship in Colorado. The story is old news by now and places like Gawker and Brazen Careerist have already covered her scandal. No one can argue that what she did was wrong (the plagiarizing was practically word for word), the debate is really about whether the Gazette in Colorado Springs should have named her.

Andy Hutchins wrote on his blog – in response to Hailey deleting all her social media accounts (blog, Twitter and Facebook) - “Why not control your own news cycle?… Playing the ostrich and hiding your head in the sand makes you look guilty and fearful.”

Andy makes an excellent point and I love the ostrich-in-the-sand image. The internet in all its glory means that Hailey will never escape her mistake. It sucks, it really does, and regardless of my disgust for what she did, this will always identify her when, 10 years from now, she’ll (hopefully) be a completely different person.

However, what she should be doing is keeping up her blog and Twitter account. Yeah, she’ll get a lot more hate mail, but she could totally be using these platforms to her advantage. Unfortunately, while obviously lacking any kind of honor/morals, the girl seems to be missing some common sense.

This all being said, I’m curious why exactly she did what she did. Apparently she’s a very talented writer all on her own and held a variety of awesome internships. Was it stress? Low self esteem? Hailey was fired (and subsequently expelled?) from school and I’m not entirely sure she’s deserving of all the hate. Though I do want to stress again how much I (obviously) disagree with what she did. The problem is though, no one outside of whatever friends she has left can ever really understand what exactly happened. And instead of explaining herself she ran away. The beauty of social media is that it allows us to control our own public image and Hailey just made it worse by hiding.

So Hailey, I would very much like to interview you. I invite you to email me at maschembari (at) gmail (dot) com and maybe give your side of the story. I await with bated breath!

p.s. I also have a “Dear Gazette” – Are you all idiots? Who lets a college student write huge stories and doesn’t fact check before publication? Hailey may be in the wrong, but at the end of the day it was your responsibility to mentor. Awesome job.


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